RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
A bunch are usually people disagreeing and making up situations to make themselves right… i.e., you posit that the sky appeared blue when you went outside today, the replies are: not if it’s night, not during cloudy days, etc. and at least one that sounds like they disagree but are reiterating what you just said.
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
I’ve made this observation before, but the funniest thing about Lemmy is that !ShowerThoughts posts elicit more controversy than !UnpopularOpinion. Like, someone posts “I love pineapple on pizza” in !ShowerThoughts, and it’s downvoted to hell with people writing long essays about how pineapple on pizza is justification for bringing back shock treatment. The same thing posted to !UnpopularOpinion brings out a mob of people saying how not unpopular an opinion that is, quoting statistics about how Hawaiian Pizza is the most popular pizza in America. It’s absolutely hilarious, and one of the few areas where the Lemmy community is truly contrarian just for contrarian’s sake.
With the exception of populations of some instances which I won’t hex by bearishly naming, and a few individually excessive dicks (or trolls, but I think most are really just assholes), the Lemmy community tends to argue in good faith, admit when they’re wrong or have had their minds changed, and are generally polite netizens in most exchanges. But !ShowerThoughts and !UnpopularOpinion just being out the contrarian in people, for some reason.
JustZ@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m here for the essays. To read them…and to write them.
Have to get it out of my brain.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Unpopular opinion is just posting things that plenty of people actually agree with. Like pineapple pizza. An actual unpopular opinion would be something like agreeing with restricting abortion or something difficult that elicits very strong feelings.
werty@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Actual unpopular opinions are not allowed on unpopular opinion
roguetrick@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Similarly actual shitposts are banned in shitposting communities.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
True. They probably get downvoted to oblivion.
sxan@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
But do we really believe the posters think what they’re posting is a popular opinion? Maybe they really think it’s unpopular, because of their IRL experiences, or what they see online.
I think it’s because people know what’s unpopular, but the heavy stuff, they don’t want to be associated with. So they choose milquetoast unpopular opinions, which aren’t really unpopular as much as maybe a minority. Like, a majority of voters voted for Trump, but thinking Kamala would have been better isn’t unpopular, it was just the minority opinion among people who got their fat assess out and voted.
Now, saying “only white, biologically born males should be allowed to vote” would be a truly unpopular opinion, but although there are absolutely more than zero people on Lemmy who believe this, no way in hell they’re going to post that.
So people stay with “safe” unpopular opinions, like… “NYC is the ugliest city I’ve ever seen.” Sure, you’ll learn some new insults from the responses, but nobody’s going to troll through your post history and throw it in your face in every argument, or follow you around and downvote everything you post because of it. Ok, maybe some New Yorkers will do the latter, but you know what I mean.
Consequently, because they’re just minority and not truly unpopular, all of the people who agree come out of the woodwork, incensed that this entirely reasonable opinion would be posted a being “unpopular.”
Thank you for coming to my Ted-L talk.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s pretty much it as far as the /comm goes.